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Husband expected to plead guilty in strangling of wife

Christopher Murray intends to plead to third-degree murder in the killing of his wife in Pennypack Park in August.

Christopher Murray, 49, is accused of strangling his wife, Connie Murray, 46.
Christopher Murray, 49, is accused of strangling his wife, Connie Murray, 46.Read more

THE NORTHEAST Philly man accused of strangling his wife in Pennypack Park during an argument last August is expected to plead guilty to third-degree murder, lawyers said yesterday.

Christopher Murray, 49, is expected to plead guilty at a May 26 Common Pleas Court hearing, Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said.

Pescatore said Murray, under a plea deal, would be sentenced to 20 to 40 years behind bars and prosecutors would drop a first-degree murder charge.

Murray is accused of strangling his wife, Connie Murray, 46, who was born without her right arm below the elbow. On the night of Aug. 4, his wife went out for a walk in the park with her jogging clothes on, Pescatore said.

"He follows her there. They had words," Pescatore said. The husband said "he doesn't remember doing anything because he blacks out," the prosecutor said.

Roger Schrading, one of Murray's two public defenders, confirmed yesterday that Murray intends to plead guilty to third-degree murder on May 26.

According to Murray's Aug. 9 statement to police, which was read in court during his November preliminary hearing, Murray claimed that his wife, the mother of his two daughters, got "physical" during an argument in the park, and that he snapped and strangled her to death.

The fight, which took place as the couple sat on a bench near the Crispin ball field, near Holme and Convent avenues, was sparked by her anger over his sending text messages to another woman, the defendant said.

"I was holding her arms, then I just snapped," the defendant said in his statement of his wife.

When detectives asked if he choked his wife, the defendant replied: "Yes, I guess I must have. I don't remember doing it."

Murray, who remains in custody, said after he strangled his wife, he "panicked," destroyed her cellphone and scattered the pieces around the park.

Early the next morning, Aug. 5, he called police and reported her missing; four hours later a dog walker stumbled upon her body.

Separately, Connie Murray's nephew, Steven Anderson, 33, and another man, Brandon Howard, 28, still face attempted burglary and related charges after they were allegedly spotted by a neighbor of the Murrays trying to break into the Murrays' unoccupied house, on Tolbut Street near Ashton Road, near Pennypack Park, about 2 a.m. Aug. 13.